SAHIWAL: The Pakistan people’s Party may support independent candidates or field the party hopefuls as independent ones in the Nov 23 by-poll to be held in the national and provincial assembly constituencies in Chichawatni tehsil -- NA-143 and PP-203.
PPP Punjab Information Secretary Shahzad Saeed Cheema and Ali Javed have submitted nomination papers from both constituencies. However, they clarified that they may contest as independent candidates from these constituencies.
On the other hand, the party’s Sahiwal district president, Zaki Choudhary, told Dawn that the final decision in this regard is pending, though the party may support an independent candidate -- Falak Sher Dogar.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has finalised its candidates for the upcoming by-elections in the both constituencies.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has already announced boycotting the by-poll countrywide.
Rai Hasan Nawaz, a member of the PTI’s central executive committee from Punjab, told Dawn on Tuesday the party will boycott the by-elections scheduled for Nov 23. He says that on the party chairman’s direction, the Rai group will not support any candidate in any constituency.
Interestingly, the PML-N has awarded tickets to both runner-up candidates from the 2024 general elections — Tufail Jutt and Hanif Jutt — popularly known as “Jutt brothers” of Chichawatni. Tufail Jutt will contest from NA-143 (Sahiwal-III), while his brother Hanif Jutt will represent the party in the PP-203 (Sahiwal-VI).
Sources say that Chaudhry Zahid Iqbal, a former district nazim, who is also affiliated with the PML-N, had been striving for the party ticket and had also met the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the purpose during his recent visit to Khanewal. However, the party leadership ultimately made the decision in favour of the Jutt brothers.
The last general election was contested by both Chaudhry Zahid and Jutt brothers, splitting the PML-N vote bank and paving the way for the victory of the PTI-backed independents to win both seats.
Traditionally, both constituencies -- NA-143 and PP-203 -- have been strongholds of the Rai family, that was considered close to the “establishment” during both Gen Musharraf’s era and Imran Khan’s tenure as premier.
Currently, both Rai Hasan Nawaz, who had won from NA-143 by securing 147,047 votes and Rai Murtaza, the winner from PP-203, have been disqualified from their respective seats under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution due to their alleged involvement in the May 9 riots.
In the 2024 general elections, Tufail Jutt remained the runner-up in NA-143 by securing 83,480 votes, while Chaudhry Zahid, who did not withdraw his candidacy, got 19,979 votes in the PP-203.
Malik Nouman Langrial of the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), Majid Hussain of (now banned as an organisation) Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Ali Javed of the PPP, had respectively secured 32,121, 17,629, and 6,303 votes in the last election.
In the 2025 by-poll, two sons of Nouman Langrial -- Falik Sher Langrial and Ahmed Sher Langrial-- will contest from NA -143 ans PP-203, respectively, on the IPP tickets.
In PP-203, Hanif Jutt had got 36,163 votes, finishing second to the PTI-backed independent Rai Murtaza, who had won by securing 55,874 votes.Political observers are of the view that the TLP may not field its candidates in the by-polls due to the ongoing operations against its cadre and leadership. They say that although the radical group was declared a banned organisation by the federal cabinet, it is still registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as a “political party”.
The scrutiny of the nomination papers has already been completed, and a total of 20 candidates — 10 each from NA-143 and PP-203 — were finalised on Sept 3.
According to District Election Commissioner Muhammad Aatir, appeals regarding the acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers were heard on Oct 24. The final list of candidates will be published on Nov 1, he added.
NA-143 has 608,740 registered voters, including 283,078 women, while PP-203 has 253,099 registered voters, including 118,403 women.
For NA-143, 442 polling stations will be set up: 96 for women, 97 for men, and 259 combined, with a total of 1,355 polling booths. For PP-203, 185 polling stations will be established; 53 for women, 55 for men, and 77 combined, with 555 polling booths, mostly in the public sector schools.
Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2025
